311 in the stone. And who of sound mind will say that it is the air that continuously strikes the bell? For, in the first place, it is only a single small part of the air which is moved by the hammer; but if someone puts his hand on the bell, even on the side opposite to the hammer, he will immediatly feel running through all the metal a certain sharp, stinging numbness.In the second place: if the air strikes and causes the bell to sound, why is it silent in the presence of a wind blowing very hard? Can it be that the south wind, which turns the sea topsy-turvy, toppling towers and fortifications, whips more softly than the small hammer, which is hardly moved? In the third place: if it were the air which reverberated in the bronze, and not the bronze in the air, then all bells of the same shape would emit the same sound; what is more, a wood bell or at least a leaden or marble one, would make as much noise as a bronze one. But, finally, let those keep silent who say that it is air which reverberates or carries the sound from one thing to another: for the bell shakes, so long as it emits a sound, and, in the absence of a striking thing, the shaking motion and the sound stays in it and is conserved; surely to attribute this to air, claiming that the latter moves such a size when it has scarcely been moved by the hammer, exceeds all sense. Hence, returning to our subject, why are they astonished at how a motive quality can be impressed in a mobile, and not at how a sound and a certain motion of trepidation can be impressed by a hammer in a bell?
But, what is more, they say that they cannot conceive how a very heavy stone can get to be light, by a motive force received from a thrower: which force, since it is lightness, inhering in the mobile, will render it light: however these same people say that it is absolutely ridiculous to believe that a stone after an upward motion has ended up light and that it weighs less than before. But these people do not judge those things according to a sane and rational attitude. For I too would not say that a stone, after its motion, has become light, but that it retains its original natural heaviness: just as white-hot iron is deprived of cold; but after the heat, it resumes the same coldness that is its own. And there is no reason for us to be astonished that, the stone as long as it is moved, is light: for between a stone in that act of motion and any other light thing, it will not be possible to assign any difference; for since we call light that which is carried upward, and the stone is carried upward, therefore the stone is light as long as it is carried upward. {1}But you will say that that is light which is carried upward naturally; and not that which is carried by force. Now I would say that that is naturally light which is carried upward naturally {1}; but also that that is light contrary to nature or by accident or by force, which is carried upward contrary to nature, by accident, and